I picked up a bottle of Thirsty Dog's Labrador Lager last week for $1.59 at The Lager Mill. I have been pretty satisfied with all the Thirsty Dog beers I have had so far so I thought I should try the only other beer from them that the store had that I haven't tried before, so lets see how it goes. No visible bottling date. Poured from a 12oz brown bottle into a imperial pint glass.

A- The label looks good, but I am Labrador owner so I'm a little biased. It poured a a pale golden yellow color that was fairly clear and it had a half a fingers worth of white head that quickly died down to a very thin ring that stayed till the end. The color was true to style but the head was pretty disappointing.

S- The first thing that I picked up was loads of sweet malts that impart a sweet grainy, and slightly bready aroma. After that comes a light amount of hops that impart a light earthy and grassy aroma. The aroma was somewhat on track for the style then the sweetness came which seemed to be way too sweet for the style.

T- The tastes seems to be almost exactly the same as the aroma. It starts off with loads of very sweet malts that impart an overly sweet grainy and biscuit taste that is a little similar to a Malt Liquor. After that comes a very slight amount of earthy and grassy hops that are easy to miss. The finish seemed to have hardly any bitterness and in it's place was lots of sweetness and a sweet grainy aftertaste. The taste is pretty boring and way too sweet, I'm not digging it.

M- Not too smooth, a little cloying, on the medium side of being light bodied, and it had a high amount of medium carbonation. The mouthfeel wasn't that impressive and it was a little over carbonated.

Overall I wasn't impressed with this beer and I thought that it wasn't a good example of a Dortmunder, the flavors were bland and there was way too much sweetness that seemed to dominate everything else. This beer doesn't have good drinkability, it doesn't hold my interest and is way too sweet, one is more then enough for me. What I liked most about this beer was the label, it's pretty sad that the label was the best thing about this beer, but that's the truth. What I liked least about this beer was pretty much everything else, there wasn't one part of this beer that didn't have some issues and the sweetness really hurt it. I wouldn't buy this beer again, and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. This seems to be the first miss that I have had from this brewery, it just missed the mark on what a good Dortmunder should be like, and so far this is my least favorite Dortmunder I have had with Great Lakes Dortmunder gold still being my favorite, and this beer isn't even remotely as good as Great Lakes Dortmunder. I took a chance on this beer and it didn't turn out how I thought it would, oh well you can't win them all, better luck next time Thirsty Dog.

This beer pours a clear, gold color with thin head, no lace. The aroma has faint hints of dough and pine. It's flavor is grassy with a bit of citrus with a dry crisp finish. The mouthfeel is light-medium. Thirsty Dog Labrador Lager is an average beer, sessionable and refreshing. Slightly recommended.

Highly carbonated, giving it a crisp mouthfeel. I thought I had smelled the telltale signs of adjuncts. Here, I think the taste confirms it. Overall, a very dry beer. There's some bittering hop flavor in the aftertaste.

Notes: The second less than stellar beer out of Thirsty Dog (had their Barktoberfest recently). These were the first two Thirsty Dog beers that did not really impress me. I found there Cerebrus 10 and Siberian Night to be exemplary.